4888 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. §83 
THAT POTATO CONTEST. 
I went out to the Rural Grounds last Fri¬ 
day, to see those potatoes dug. Most people 
that visit the Rural Grounds have a lot to 
say about the beauty of the place, etc. 
It is a pretty place. If I had such nice 
grounds around my house I expect my farm 
work would suffer, for when the hot days 
came, these trees would seem too tempting 
and the sun out in the fields too hot. It will 
pay a plain farmer like me, .to put in work 
enough around the house to make the grounds 
look well, but to go beyond a certain point will 
be poor business. There is one thing about 
these grounds that ought to teach farmers a 
mighty le son. They show what patient and 
intelligent work will accomplish. Fifteen years 
ago this beautiful place was an old apple 
orchard—half of it a soft swamp. To-day 
there is a field only 20 rods away, that shows 
what the Rural Grounds were 15 years ago. 
It is a telling contrast. It teaches a lesson to 
the farmer, as well as to the gardener. Ex¬ 
pend the same brains and patience on a farm, 
that have been spent here, and the gain in 
fertility will be about as marked, as is the 
gain in appearance here. 
There were lots of notable men on hand to 
see the potatoes dug. I am a little sorry I 
saw some of them. They didn’t come up to 
themselves. My idea as to what they looked 
like had been made up from reading the 
articles in the Rural and other papers. 
When I really rubbed elbows with them there 
seemed to be something wrong. It is not safe, 
apparently, to form an estimate of a man’s 
appearance until you can really see him. No 
man seems to be able to create a good picture 
of himself. 
But about those potatoes. A good many 
folks got mixed up about this “contest.” 
Three different men told me that the Rural 
had said it would raise 700 bushels on a meas¬ 
ured acre, and this in spite of all the explana¬ 
tion the Rural has given. As I understood 
it, the idea was to illustrate, on a small scale, 
the conditions of soil, fertilizing, culture, 
selection of seed, etc., that are needed to pro¬ 
duce a big potato crop. The farmer ought to 
see how close he can come to these conditions, 
in regular field practice, without making the 
cost of the culture more than the value of the 
crop. Nobody pretends that the potatoes 
dug out of this “contest” plot would sell upon 
the market for enough to pay for the culture 
and digging; but the experiment indicated 
the road to abetter potato crop so plainly that 
it would be a very dull blind man who could 
not see it. It strikes me that a man would 
have the hardest kind of a job to take care of 
an acre of potatoes as these were cared for, 
and yet, come to think of it, if a man by 
carrying out this work on an acre could carry 
out the average of the yield, he would do bet¬ 
ter than a good many of us do on half-a-dozen 
acres. 
The digging of these potatoes was just about 
as exciting as a base-ball game. We watched 
every potato that came out of the ground. 
The way they dug them was a good sample of 
the work that had been put into that patch. 
A man dug out a trench two feet wide by one 
foot deep. We farmers would starve to death 
if we tried to dig potatoes like that, but here 
it was a case where every little nut of a tuber 
counted. It is not my business to tell about 
the flea-beetle and other things that evidently 
beat the Rural. The Rural will have to 
tell its own story. All we wanted was the 
actual result. The one row which they said 
had not been touched to any extent by this 
beetle was enough to prove the success 
of the Trench system to any man with or¬ 
dinary common sense. Why the potatoes 
came rolling out of that trench as large as a 
baby’s head. There wasn’t a man on the 
grounds who could say that he ever saw 
anything that beat it, and that is the greatest 
thing that can be said about a crowd of 
Jerseymen. 
Now considering the whole thing, I am 
satisfied in my own mind that this “ contest ” 
presents the most thoughtful topic for Jersey 
farmers, that has ever been presented by any 
public experiment. Think of it a moment. 
Just before I went to see this digging, I looked 
up, in my agricultural report, the statistics on 
potato raising. The average for Jersey is 
given as 80 bushels per acre, and the average 
for the entire country rests at about 76 
bushels. Just think the thing over a moment 
and you will see that this average is not far 
out of the way. The man who actually raises 
100 bushels of marketable potatoes on an 
acre is doing well for my country. 
Now, if, by carrying on a modification of I 
this trench system a farmer can add the best 
part of 100 bushels to this yield, it is well 
worth trying, isn’t it? We never hear of these 
big yields even “at the rate of,” in tough 
hard, poorly-worked soil. In fact, the more 
I think of it the more am I convinced that 
this careful cultivation and soil preparation 
are to indicate the ideal. It is the farmer’s 
business to come as near to this careful tillage 
as he can without increasing the cost beyond 
the point of profit. 
I was interested in another experiment the 
Rural had started. This was a measured 
half acre of potatoes put in on this trench 
system or as near to it as horse-power could 
get. The flea-beetle had evidently visited 
this field—there was hardly a potato over 
half grown on it—and yet the judges measur¬ 
ed a yield of 378 bushels per acre. They 
took a poor part of the field, too. On 
this field nothing but Bowker’s Potato Man¬ 
ure had been used. This was put both above 
and below the seed pieces. 
It was evident to me from the weeds and 
the condition of the soil that this field had 
about the poorest kind of cultivation; yet 
farmers around the Rural Grounds told 
me they seldom raise more than 140 to 150 
bushels per acre. Such farmers claim to use 
about 800 pounds of fertilizer per acre; and 
most of them seem to plant the potatoes in 
hills so they can cultivate both ways. Now 
if by applying a heavy dressing of Bowker’s 
fertilizer, starting the plants on this trench 
system and giving no better cultivation than 
this field has had, the Rural folks can get a 
measured yield of nearly 400 bushels per acre, 
it is certainly high time farmers looked in¬ 
to this matter. The Rural will, I suppose, 
tell its own story concerning the advantages 
of the system. I can only tell what occurred 
to me to be the lesson taught by this contest. 
Some of the spectators seemed to think they 
had about as good potatoes at home. Most of 
them raise their potatoes in hills, and forget 
that these drills give about 10,000 more plants 
per acre. They see the potatoes come out of 
one place in the drill, and because one of 
their hills will yield more than that place, 
they say they can beat the yield. They forget 
that the product of three of these places in the 
drill should be counted against their one hill, 
because their hills are three feet apart, while 
the seed-pieces are put only one foot apart in 
the drills. 
The dressing of sulphur used in the Rural’s 
trenches was plainly visible. It formed a 
yellow streak right through the soil. The po¬ 
tatoes, where it was used, were remarkably 
smooth. I heard two men talking about it. 
One man wondered if the sulphur had any 
fertilizing power. The other man thought it 
might act like lime to “sweeten” the soil and 
liberate matters now insoluble. They refer¬ 
red it to a chemist who was there. He thought 
the sulphur would be injurious rather than 
helpful from a chemical point of view, as, if 
it changed at all, the change would be likely 
to produce sulphuric acid, which is harmful to 
vegetation. It evidently did good work in 
that soil. 
Another man thought an excessive dress¬ 
ing of commercial fertilizer would be apt to 
prevent potato rot, because of some chemical 
action it might produce in the soil. All these 
questions are a little too deep for me. All I 
know is that one row of potatoes on that 
“contest” plot gave the best yield I ever saw. 
What I want to do is to copy the cultivation 
those potatoes had as closely as I can. 
JERSEYMAN. 
UNTIMELY FROSTS. 
FROM D. S. MARVIN. 
Northern N. Y., contiguous to Lake On¬ 
tario suffered very little from the late frost. 
As to man’s control over these forces' of 
nature, frosts and tempests, neither one nor 
all of the so-called devices for avoiding or 
controlling them, has much force or value. 
Man is governed and controlled by the ele¬ 
ments. The only direction in which he can 
avoid an untimely frost, is through being pre¬ 
pared for it, by managing his crops so that 
they are mature, and out of the way of the 
frost when it comes. I have never, for in¬ 
stance, lost a crop of grapes here, while some 
ot my neighbors have lost theirs. Two tons 
to the acre are all that I ever undertake to 
grow. I thin them out if more set. I 
summer-prune, so as to have the foliage near 
the fruit, and not at the end of long and un¬ 
ripe vines. Similar control over other crops, 
according to their several needs, will suggest 
themselves to the careful farmer. The reader 
will therefore see that the way to avoid fall 
frost, is to begin early in the spring, carefully 
manure and prepare the soil, then cultivate 
and manipulate as the crop needs, in all 
possible ways so as to hasten maturity. 
FROM T. H. HOSKINS. 
I # 
The frosts hare not been so severe in north¬ 
ern Vermont as they are reported to have 
been farther south; but away from water 
they were sufficient to blacken and destroy all 
tender vegetation. With me they did nothing 
more than nip a few squash leaves on the side 
of my farm farthest from the lake. We often 
notice reports of severe frosts, spring and 
fall, as far south as Virginia and Tennessee, 
that do not strike us here ; and my experi¬ 
ence of 13 years in the Ohio Valley, compared 
with that for 23 years on Lake Memphrema- 
gog, indicates that (for the crops we can grow) 
frost does less harm here than there to the 
farmer and gardener. Still, there will be 
very little sound corn in Vermont, away from 
the shores and islands of Lakes Champlain and 
Memphremagog, and late-sown oats and 
wheat have been generally mown and hayed 
to save them, since tho frost. But the free 
and frequent rains which have kept the grass 
growing steadily since haying have more than 
paid the farmers for their losses from frost. 
Those farmers who have silos have lost little 
by the injury to corn, which is not very ex¬ 
tensively planted in the State, except for en¬ 
silage. 
As to any defense the market gardener and 
fruit grower has against frost, iny experience 
for many years confirms the truth of the 
proverb that an ounce of prevention is worth 
a pound of cure; and I am sure that land so 
located as to have the protection of a large 
body of water is, for such purposes, worth five 
times as much as equally good land without 
it. Where any considerable spread of tender 
crops is grown, artificial protection from 
frost in the way of covering is'out of the 
question; and all experiments looking to pro¬ 
tection from windward fires and smokes seems 
to have resulted in failure. Light frosts are 
les3 likely to do harm on spots where the sur¬ 
face is kept loose by frequent cultivation, and 
this is beneficial to that end in spring; but 
cultivation has generally ceased on most gar¬ 
den crops when the time of fall frost arrives. 
Potatoes are reported as rotting badly. 
Only 25 cents a bushel are being paid for 
them here for shipment, yet I think the crop 
will prove to be short, and in many cases poor. 
Daivij ^itsbxm'Dnj. 
KEEPING A FAMILY COW FROM A 
PROBABLE ATTACK OF MILK 
FEVER. 
A. B. ALLEN. 
Milking before calving ; feed of the calf and 
of the cow ; a good family cow. 
The cow kept more particularly for the 
above purpose is a grade Guernsey, which 
gives quite as rich milk as an average Jersey. 
She was due to calve the last day of July, and 
had been milked up to within five weeks of 
that time. The milk then began to come a 
little thick, and although it was as sweet and 
palatable as before, we did not like to use it 
any longer in the house; and so, although she 
was not then giving over a coup e ot quarts 
per day, we commenced drying her up, and 
succeeded in doing this three weeks previous 
to her calving, she going ten days over her 
time. It is said that when a cow does this, 
the calf is sure to be a bull; but she dropped 
a very fine heifer, got by a thoroughbred 
Jersey bull. 
Soon after being dried, I noticed tho udder 
began to increase rapidly in size, and in a 
week’s time the skin seemed to thicken, and 
when the baud was pressed pretty strongly 
against the udder, the latter could not be 
much indented. I then feared that if we did 
not commence milking again, she would be 
attacked with milk fever shortly before or 
after calving, and three weeks previous to her 
doing this, milking was renewed by drawing 
about two quarts morning and night. This 
was gradually increased to four quarts, mak¬ 
ing eight quarts per day, and so we con¬ 
tinued till she dropped her calf, which was of 
full size, though rather thin in flesh. It has 
filled up sufficiently well since, and has had 
a good—I might almost say, a rapid growth 
although it will be seen by the following that 
its feed has been quite moderate. 
It was allowed to suck, morning, noon, and 
night, what it would, for five days, and drew, 
as nearly as we could guess, about seven 
quarts of milk per day. This, together with 
milking afterwards, each time by hand, and 
the calf bunting industriously while sucking, 
mellowed the udder, thinned the skin, and 
made all so pliable that milk fever was no 
longer dreaded, the cow being strong, with an 
excellent appetite. The calf was now weaned 
and fed .five pints of nevv milk three times per 
day,.till four .weeks; old; then its feed was 
gradually changed to two quarts of new milk, 
mixed with one quart of warmed skim milk, 
and an even tablespoonful of linseed meal, 
morning, noon, and night, thus milking nine 
quarts of milk per day, with the three spoon¬ 
fuls of linseed meal. This may be considered 
rather scant food for a medium-sized calf; 
but it is better to keep it stinted a little than 
stuffed, or even full-fed, when it is designed 
to gr^w it up for a dairy cow, as this is in¬ 
tended to be. Fall feeding is apt to bring on 
scorn’s, and stuffing certainly will, which 
sometimes becomes fatal, and always makes a 
pull-back in the growth and condition of the 
calf. 
The feed of the cow until within two 
months of calving was rather poor pasture, 
with two quarts each of wheat bran and In¬ 
dian meal, and one pint of oil-meal, mixed 
together and wet up, with a pailful of cut 
hay, night and morning. After this, the meal 
was gradually omitted, and ceased entirely a 
month before calving, and the bran was 
gradually lessened to a quart, mixed with a 
pint of oil-meal, morning and night; and this 
has been continued till the present time, with 
poor pasture and dwarf sweet corn. This last 
we begaq to cut up for soiling as soon as 
silked, in the latter part of July. It was fed 
moderately to begin with to prevent scouring, 
and then all she pleased to eat was given. 
She gives 16 quarts of quite rich milk per 
day, and keeps in excellent flesh. If all this 
milk were used for butter, I have no doubt it 
would produce fully nine pounds per week, and 
probably more; but I like to keep within 
bounds when guessing at a thing. When we 
come to stop the milk entirely for the calf, we 
will then see how much butter can be made 
from it per week. 
COW NOTES. 
In regard to feeding poor hay, if the cows 
have been supplied with good pasture in the 
summer and been put up in winter-quarters 
as soon as the frosts have ruined the pastures, 
they may, as fast as they dry off, be fed with 
poor hay and a little grain until they calve. 
The dairyman should see that his stable is 
warm, his cows well-bedded and made com¬ 
fortable, and that they stay out in winter only 
a short time each day, except on warm, pleas¬ 
ant days, and that in winter they are never 
allowed to stay out in a cold storm or on a 
very cold day, as it costs too much in hay and 
grain to replace the fat that a few hours of 
cold and discomfort will remove. Cows made 
comfortable will winter on a much poorer ra¬ 
tion and come out in spring in much better 
condition than those fed high but not cared 
for properly. c. M. w. 
Wxrmnn's Wmrk. 
CONDUCTED BY EMILY LOUISE TAPLIN. 
CHAT BY THE WAY. 
How lonely the mother feels when for the 
first time her boy shows that he feels too big 
to be kissed! As they begin to feel like little 
men, too many boys think that any show of 
affection on their part is babyish; they are 
afraid of being called “girl-boys” or milksops. 
Just as if a man is ever more manly than 
when he loves and protects the mother who 
loved and protected him through so many 
helpless years. Such a boy is sure to grow 
into the man who takes such good care of his 
wife. 
* * * 
We don’t believe that girls are always 
better than boys in this particular. Lots of 
good girls there are, who are tender, loving 
daughters, but a great many seem to think 
that their duty to their mothers ends with the 
service they may render her. Duty is duty, 
but the mother would like it all the better 
with a little petting thrown in. We have 
heard girls say that they hated to think of 
growing old, because no one would care for 
them or pet them. That was an unconscious 
confession of two failiugs: the first, that they 
never tried to make life happier for old 
people; the second, that they did not try to 
cultivate qualities which would outlive the 
loss of their youthful bloom. They should 
study that time-worn fable of the grass-hopper 
and the ant. 
* * * 
Some pretty newspaper racks are described 
by the Art Interchange. One style is made 
of bamboo matting, which is made in differ¬ 
ent designs the natural color of the bamboo. 
This matting is 18 inches wide, and costs $1. a 
yard. Sometimes the entire piece for the 
pocket is painted in diluted oil paint; then'a 
design is painted across the upper part; and 
also across the bottom, where about 18 inches 
are turned up to form the pocket. At the 
corners this is fastened to the back. The 
whole is bound with harmonizing ribbon; at 
the top are ribbons finished with a bow, by 
